“Sales Growth” by McKinsey & Company Inc. is a book that provides practical and proven strategies for companies looking to drive sales growth. The book covers a range of topics, including identifying growth opportunities, optimizing sales strategies, and improving the effectiveness of sales teams.
It draws insights from McKinsey’s extensive experience working with some of the world’s leading sales organizations. The book is designed as a comprehensive guide to help companies achieve above-market sales growth and improve their overall competitiveness.
Strategy 1: Find Growth Before Your Competitors Do
Sales leaders continuously monitor economics, consumer behavior, and other forces to identify two or three relevant trends each year.
Surf the trends.
Good sales leaders know how to hit monthly and annual sales targets. Great sales leaders tap into the big picture, watching for strategic openings in economic trends or changes in customer sectors and regions. They know these can be real opportunities.
Invest ahead of demand.
This might mean making a small investment in analytic capabilities or beefing up the number of frontline sales staff ahead of the emerging trend. Make it a way of life. Leading sales organizations have a built-in forward perspective and mechanisms to turn insights into action.
Find big growth in big data
Many leading-edge companies already use big data as an engine of growth.
Powerful data strengthens their ability to outperform their peers; simply put, mastering data is mission critical. In looking for growth from big data, three ideas are particularly important:
- Harvest every source of big data. Create opportunities for customers to provide more data, partner with external providers, and generate insights through advanced analytics and experimentation.
- Get personal when selling. Use sophisticated micro-segmentation and personalization analytics to create tailored selling propositions and approaches that precisely meet buyers’ needs.
- Put big data at the heart of sales. Make data availability, scientific investigation of growth opportunities, and decisions based on big data cornerstones of both sales strategy and sales culture to develop a competitive advantage.
Innovate Direct Sales
In today’s ever-changing business landscape, traditional direct-selling models are no longer enough for the world’s leading sellers. Top sellers constantly seek new and creative ways to boost sales and innovate.
The most successful direct sellers are those who engage customers early, unlock growth in key accounts, and pursue new prospects relentlessly.
Tips for better sales
Invest in Partners
- Partners are an extension of your sales force. Treat them well and they will help you make more money.
Sell Like a Local
- Get to know the local market and build relationships with the right partners.
Build Talent for the Long Term
- Emerging markets are growing rapidly. Invest in the talent you need to keep up.
Mine Growth beneath the Surface
The sales leaders across a range of sectors agreed that taking this sort of granular approach to growth is essential in deciding where to compete and in translating market insights into actions.
The most successful sales leaders were extremely proactive in mining the growth that lay right beneath their feet in what seemed to be mature markets. Many have delivered impressive results thanks to this micro-market approach to growth, even under the strain of the recent financial crisis.
Tune sales operations for growth
The leading companies focus on two areas of improvement to propel operations to the next levels of sales excellence:
- Give sales teams more time to sell. Sales operations are crucial to releasing reps’ time from non-selling activity; once they see the benefit of the change, their behavior becomes self-sustaining.
- Use sales operations to the customers’ benefit. Improving operations can have an enormous impact on customers. A smoother and faster sales process can boost loyalty, even if it requires some adaptations to customers’ own operations.
The Big Sales Companies do these three things
At the core of this approach to finding growth ahead of competition, leading sales organizations do three things:
- Find the pockets of growth. Using micro-market analysis, companies can identify where opportunity lies at a very granular level based on a combination of market characteristics, including competitive intensity and market attractiveness.
- Look beyond sales to mine growth. To maximize the benefits of micromarkets, leading organizations recognize they need to involve functions beyond sales.
- Keep it easy for the sales team. Micro-market strategies by their very nature are heavy on the analytics, so it’s important that sales teams on the ground don’t get bogged down by the details and can simply harness the information in the most effective way.
Pursue new prospects relentlessly
Pursue new prospects relentlessly by using a variety of methods, such as:
- Attending trade shows and conferences
- Using social media
- Sending cold emails or calling potential customers
Pay more attention to presales
Heads of sales and CEOs need to take a more active role in extracting the function’s full potential. Leading sales organizations do two things particularly well:
Focus on the quality, not the quantity, of leads. They use analytics to unearth the most profitable deals, so they don’t waste the time of their precious presales staff.
Use expertise appropriately before and during the sale.
Savvy customers need access to presales staff to answer their more complex questions, while even for relatively simple transactions, having experts readily available—physically or virtually—can make or break the deal.
Get the most out of marketing
There are three specific actions that leading organizations take to bring marketing and sales closer together:
Capitalize on a company-wide understanding of buyers’ needs. Great sales leaders work hard to align with marketing (and other departments) to make sure everyone knows what buyers want and how they want to buy.
Sell the way your customers want
Master multichannel sales by:
- Blending remote and field sales
- Integrating online and offline channels
- Orchestrating direct and indirect channels
- Bringing service channels into the fold
Optimize your digital sales strategy by:
- Fanatically optimizing and constantly adjusting it
- Getting mobile to drive growth
- Integrating digital in a great omnichannel experience
Engage customers early
Engage customers early in the sales process to build relationships and trust. This can take many forms, such as:
- Providing valuable content or resources
- Conducting surveys or interviews
- Holding workshops or webinars
Unlock growth in key accounts
Unlock growth in key accounts by understanding their needs and expectations. This can be done by:
- Building relationships with key decision-makers
- Providing customized solutions
- Offering loyalty programs or other incentives
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